We all have lots of stories to tell. I thought it would be fun if we shared a few of our funniest patient stories with each other.
Here's mine...
I keep remembering a particular incident a few years back. It wasn't even my patient.
I was heading down the hallway on the CCU unit in which I worked. I was minding my own business, heading down the hallway and I just happened to glance into a patient room...
I couldn't believe what I saw...
An older gentleman, who clearly was having some post-op dementia after open heart surgery....
he was sitting up in the middle of his bed and with knees bent and feet braced at the bed rail for extra support....
With both hands...
HE WAS PULLING on all of his CHEST TUBES with ALL OF HIS MIGHT!!!
Needless to say, I sprang into action along with all the surrounding nursing staff. It took security along with all of us to restrain this man so he wouldn't hurt himself. Though it wasn't funny at the time....I can't get this picture out of my mind and find it amusing to remember.
Thanks for sorting my spelling out and glad the story amused you. No word of a lie, it happened, this woman was the terror of a small village outside Halifax, the chemist, the post office, the doctors and nurses and everyone went in fear and trembling of getting involved in her "scenarios" which was always long, complicated and mad like--did I take my tablets thsi morning ? Bbefore mobiles were in use, I was foolhardy enough to let her have my personal number and lived to regret it! I made a freind of her but she drove me nuts at times with repitition and not "getting the message". She had a sad history--her first husband died in the war in a car fire, she maried again to --IO'll call him JIm---and nursed him devotedly through Parkinsons. He died in Hospital, she told me that" they were there, with the syringe ready"???!!!! As she had no family I organised the funeral. They had had an adopted son who died when young of Huntingtons chorea--what a dreadful thing. Kind as she was though I was cross over her keeping dogs which she could not walk, I am afraid these dogs were stuffed full of food and died from lack of excercise. When she went to the breeder and bought "Sultan" I--and another kind neighbour--were livid, that was when I decided to take Sulton on and look after his welfare which ultimately had me fostering him--when Mrs M ENDED UP in care-----I found him a good home via the Dogs Trust. I continued to take my dog to work in the back of the car until this jobsworth decided to make trouble, but thats another story--on another thread, I forget which!
I was trained to be a phleb at the very first hospital I ever worked at after begging to be trained so I could have some pt contact (I was a secretary). My first night that I went up on my own (our runs started at 1am), my very first room, I go in to find my pt's neighbor, a little old man sitting at the foot of the bed, completely naked, swinging his feet. When I asked him what he was doing he said he just felt like dangling. Well, he was dangling a wole lot more than just his legs, and I had never before then seen a naked man before. I'm sure I looked surprised, but I was able to contain my laughter and got the RN who quickly came in to help. Poor guy, I bet he had no clue what he was doing.
I was taking care of this lil old lady, diabetic, bilateral AKA, HOH, and confused. She had really long fingernails that were curling over and embedding in the pads of her fingertips. Since she was diabetic, I did not feel comfortable clipping her fingernails and asked her attending physician about consulting someone to clip her nails. The attending consulted a podiatrist who was consulted frequently for clipping diabetic toenails. When the podiatrist arrived to the unit, he asked for the nurse taking care of this patient --- me. He instructed me on the supplies he needed and to meet him at the patient's bedside. When I arrived to the patient's room with the requested supplied, the podiatrist was talking the patient, introducting himself, explaining that he was going to clip her nails. I stood the side ready to provide assistance if needed. The podiatrist walked to the foot of the patient's bed and whipped back the covers on the left side. I saw that he noted her left AKA and simultaneously realized that he thought he was there to clip her toenails. I did not inform him of this mistaken assumption and watched to see how it would play out, grinning. He looked up at me, whipped the covers back over her left AKA, and proceeded around to the other side of the bed, then whipped back the covers on the right side. When he saw the right AKA, he looked at me (I was grinning so hugely and trying valiantly to keep from laughing out loud. He was probably wondering what I found so amusing.), and he asked me if this was the right patient he was consulted on to clip her nails. I informed him that she was, and that he was consulted to clip her fingernails, not her toenails. He whipped the covers back over her right side and informed me that he is a podiatrist and does not clip fingernails. I requested that he please look at her fingernails. He assessed her fingernails, and then he clipped them. That occurred many years ago, but even now when I run into this physician we share a smile over that.
Nurses have to put up with naughty words when the patient isn't responsible for saying them and to some extent even when they are, but we don't have to propogate the habit in our own behavior.
Some people think dirty jokes are "adult" and funny; I don't, and I think it demeans nurses as I believe it demeans anyone to put low language or ideas in front of them.
And, by the way, I'm no prude or shielded from life, I just think we can be better than that. And I think I have a sense of humor.
One patient lived on a Medicare ward I worked, a young man, formerly a motorcyclist, now a quadraplegic requiring continuing care in the nursing home. He had some nurses or aides who brought him alchohol and other things. And since they thought, because of my faith, that I was an easy mark, they set me up one night in my care of him, to put something I needed for his care on top of his bare private parts. My professionalism didn't hide my embarrassment; I simply acknowledged that they "got" me and he still got his care.
If we don't laugh at them, we'll end up crying. I too have a strong faith, but that doesn't mean I don't have a laugh at what I hear or see. If one has a problem with the thread, then one has a choice whether to read or not, no one's making you!
Also, I love the stories, greensister! More, more, more!
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
tiggerforhim said:
If we don't laugh at them, we'll end up crying. I too have a strong faith, but that doesn't mean I don't have a laugh at what I hear or see. If one has a problem with the thread, then one has a choice whether to read or not, no one's making you!
Also, I love the stories, greensister! More, more, more!
Very well put. Thank you. And several nurses on this board know that I too am a strong Christian, but am definitely no prude.
hi, this is a little humor in the middle of a family drama
I was taking care of a pt's final paper work and getting ready to send my pt with the funeral home transport. I had family member coming in one by one to say their goodbyes, before the pt left the home for the last time and this paticular pt had a beloved pet who was left behind, an adorable dauschhound. between family members the dog got up on the bed and crawled under the sheet and laid down between the pt's legs very quiet and very still. I was busy counting narcotics and doing paper work and was only half aware of what was happening. the pt's eldest daughter came in to say goodbye. well, before I could look up from my paper work and warn the daughter, the pt's daughter was bending over to kiss the pt and the dog moved from under the sheets the daughter jumped up and screamed! when the dog popped out of the sheet, the entire family was in the room, saw what had happened and everyone was laughing hysterically. everyone had felt as though mom was, for one last time, cheering them up.
My story is a true and strange story. I was working on a neuro unit in the mid 80's and has caring for a woman who shot herself in the head in an attempted suicide. She told me this story:
The first time I tried to shot myself, I missed and the loud noise almost scared me to death. ( I thought the choice of words, unusual) Then I shot the gun again and it grazed my head and WOW did that hurt! (yeah! I bet) I climbed up the hill, as I was in the woods and flagged down a car for help.
greensister
57 Posts
Thanks for sorting my spelling out and glad the story amused you. No word of a lie, it happened, this woman was the terror of a small village outside Halifax, the chemist, the post office, the doctors and nurses and everyone went in fear and trembling of getting involved in her "scenarios" which was always long, complicated and mad like--did I take my tablets thsi morning ? Bbefore mobiles were in use, I was foolhardy enough to let her have my personal number and lived to regret it! I made a freind of her but she drove me nuts at times with repitition and not "getting the message". She had a sad history--her first husband died in the war in a car fire, she maried again to --IO'll call him JIm---and nursed him devotedly through Parkinsons. He died in Hospital, she told me that" they were there, with the syringe ready"???!!!! As she had no family I organised the funeral. They had had an adopted son who died when young of Huntingtons chorea--what a dreadful thing. Kind as she was though I was cross over her keeping dogs which she could not walk, I am afraid these dogs were stuffed full of food and died from lack of excercise. When she went to the breeder and bought "Sultan" I--and another kind neighbour--were livid, that was when I decided to take Sulton on and look after his welfare which ultimately had me fostering him--when Mrs M ENDED UP in care-----I found him a good home via the Dogs Trust. I continued to take my dog to work in the back of the car until this jobsworth decided to make trouble, but thats another story--on another thread, I forget which!
greensister